"I can fix this, I can fix this!"
Quinn kept telling himself that, his expression flickering between hope and despair. "The elders in the village always taught me: if you can get into trouble, you can get out of it too. This time I can definitely fix it... unless I can't..."
This time, the mess was way too big.
High-Emperor Heaven originally had no sun. The Sun-Maker God and the realm’s cultivators had painstakingly forged one and a half artificial suns. These became a source of pride for the people here—until half of that pride was just blown away.
Quinn had considered making a new sun for High-Emperor Heaven, but forging a perfect sphere wasn’t the hard part—the real challenge was turning that sphere into an actual sun.
The Sun-Maker God was once the cook of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court, a firekeeper who wielded divine fire. So even though his craftsmanship was crude and the suns he made were ugly, they still gave light and heat to High-Emperor Heaven.
This divine fire was probably far superior to the Departure Fire of Departure City. So rebuilding the sun—the divine fire was the biggest problem.
Just then, after that black pillar of light destroyed half the sun and pierced the void, the spatial ripples became visible to the naked eye—like waves spreading outward, layer upon layer.
"The other sun!"
Black Tiger God’s heart seized up. He stared anxiously as the ripples reached the second sun.
Beneath the altar, thousands of High-Emperor Heaven cultivators and gods—including Pang Yu, God Sang Ye, and others floating in midair—felt their hearts clench. Their fists tightened so hard their nails nearly pierced their palms.
The ripples passed through the sun hanging in the sky. With each crest, the sun was squeezed into an oblong yolk; with each trough, it was stretched out, elongated more than tenfold.
Everyone stared in terror at the sky. When the ripples faded, the sun was still hanging overhead, and the tense crowd finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, the intact sun gave a loud crack, and a massive chunk broke off, falling away.
The falling piece was as large as a mountain, trailing flames and thick smoke as it slid diagonally through the sky. No one knew where it would land.
The sun overhead had never been perfectly round. Now, it looked like a giant with crooked teeth had taken a bite out of it.
"Junior Brother, should we run for our lives?" Black Tiger God whispered.
"Everyone, I have two pieces of good news!"
Standing atop the altar, Quinn wiped the waterfall of cold sweat from his brow and tried to look as confident as possible. He swept his gaze around and declared loudly, "First, the World Bridge is open! This bridge connects High-Emperor Heaven and Everpeace. Now, everyone in High-Emperor Heaven has a way out—even if we lose to the demons, we can retreat to Everpeace and preserve our race!"
Below the altar, thousands of cultivators stared at him in a daze, struggling to turn their heads in his direction.
After announcing the first piece of good news, Quinn waited quietly, letting everyone absorb it.
He was making sure to claim credit for himself.
High-Emperor Heaven used to have no escape route. If the gods and cultivators lost, ordinary people would be left to be slaughtered. Now, thanks to Quinn’s World Bridge, everyone has a way out—a path to preserve their race and inheritance. What greater achievement could there be?
With this merit in hand, even if Quinn continued to boast later, the gods and cultivators of High-Emperor Heaven wouldn’t dare kill him out of embarrassment.
After a moment, Pang Yu—true god that he was—was the first to recover. He nodded slowly and said, "Young Quinn and Brother Tiger built the World Bridge and gave our people a way out. That is truly a great deed!"
God Sang Ye and the other gods nodded in agreement—Quinn and Black Tiger God’s achievement was immense.
Connecting the two realms meant more than just a retreat. The cultivators of Everpeace could now support High-Emperor Heaven, letting them hold out longer against the demons.
One cultivator stammered, "But... the sun in the sky..."
Quinn beamed, laughing heartily. "That’s my second piece of good news—something worth celebrating!"
His voice rang out: "Everyone, the sun overhead is too broken, too old. We can swap it for two new ones! Perfectly round, flawless suns!"
Silence fell all around.
Suddenly, Sabrina threw up her hands in excitement. "Yay—!"
Her cheer was painfully out of place. Sabrina’s voice faded as she shrank back, coughing twice to cover her embarrassment and falling silent.
"Don’t say anything," someone muttered.
Pang Yu’s smile was stiff as he whispered to the gods beside him, "Keep smiling. Stay calm. Don’t let any killing intent show. They’re the Celestial Teacher’s disciples—we have to show some dignity."
One god forced a smile and murmured, "Will they really help us forge new suns?"
"No idea."
Pang Yu kept smiling. "If they don’t, we can’t let them leave High-Emperor Heaven. But judging by how confident they look, maybe they can pull it off."
Quinn looked down at the gods and cultivators below—and at the furious faces of the High-Emperor Heaven gods. The cold sweat on his forehead was ready to burst out like a dam.
Black Tiger God whispered, "Junior Brother, they don’t look very happy. Did they figure out we have no clue how to forge the divine fire to light a sun?"
"Shut up, Senior Brother."
Quinn forced a stiff smile, gritting his teeth and whispering, "Just keep smiling. Pretend we really can forge a sun."
Black Tiger God kept smiling, speaking through his fangs: "This is our first time activating the World Bridge. We don’t know if it’ll connect to the Great Ruins altar. If it fails, will they kill us for both mistakes?"
"Shut up, Senior Brother!"
Quinn’s smile was starting to crack. "The World Bridge should be open now. Can we enter the Great Ruins from here?"
Black Tiger God whispered, "If something goes wrong and we cross the bridge, we might get shredded—come out the other side as a pile of meat."
A cold wind blew, and all fell silent.
In the Great Ruins, dusk was falling.
Stone giants marched through the forest, swinging massive hammers to flatten and compact the earth. Towering trees pulled up their roots and strode aside like people, lining up along the road before re-rooting themselves in neat rows.
The stone giants led the way, followed by thousands of girls in colorful dresses, chattering away. Square stone slabs floated down from the sky, automatically paving the road beneath their feet.
Behind them, tree giants hammered the stone slabs into place, making the road smooth and even.
At the rear, the Master of the Heavenly Works Hall led cultivators in carefully inscribing runes onto each slab, making the road sturdy enough for war chariots and giant beasts.
With stone slabs paving the way, repairs would be easy—just swap out any damaged slab for a new one.
The Imperial Preceptor of the Everpeace Empire walked side by side with Raina Bear. They searched for statues to move near the road. If there was a village nearby, even better—they’d relocate the whole village and its people, turning the spot into a future town.
Before moving a statue, they always burned incense and made offerings—an important ritual Quinn had taught the Imperial Preceptor. That’s why the roadwork was slower than Quinn had planned.
To build the road Quinn had designed, the Imperial Preceptor and Raina Bear had worked tirelessly, extending it deep into the Great Ruins. In another month, it would reach Dragoncrest City—almost to the border of the Everpeace Empire.
Quinn had connections all across the Western Lands, with ties to every major clan. Building a road to link West and Central Lands was a massive undertaking, but the clans supported it and sent many cultivators to help.
"Let everyone rest!"
The Imperial Preceptor checked the sky and called out, "Night is coming! Gather near the statues—don’t wander after dark!"
Everyone hurried to the statues, built fires, and cooked dinner. The girls chattered excitedly about the men of Everpeace, sneaking glances at the cultivators from the Heavenly Works Hall and giggling. The cultivators blushed and didn’t dare say a word.
The Imperial Preceptor’s gaze was deep as he watched the setting sun. This time, Quinn had left all the hard work to him and gone off to enjoy himself, but he didn’t complain.
Last time, when they pacified the Western Lands, he’d dumped all the dirty work on Quinn—and Quinn had handled it well.
Suddenly, the sky shook. A beam of black light pierced down from above, spinning wildly and boring a hole through space.
The Imperial Preceptor’s expression changed as he looked toward where the black light struck.
Boom!
The black light hit the ground, sending tremors through the earth that reached their feet. It felt as if some terrifying monster was about to burst out from below!
"Preceptor!"
The Master of the Heavenly Works Hall’s eyes flashed with light as he looked at the disturbance. His face changed. "The heavens shift, the earth surges—a monster is at work!" he cried.
The Imperial Preceptor stood up. "Stay here. I’ll go check it out," he said gravely.
Darkness swept in. The Imperial Preceptor walked through it to where the black light had struck. As its energy faded, a blue beam shot up from the ground, piercing the sky and forming a glowing passageway.
The source of the blue light was a massive altar, like a mountain. Every rune on its surface was now aglow.
The Imperial Preceptor’s eyes widened as he studied the sudden altar. After a moment’s hesitation, he walked onto it and stepped into the blue light.
In High-Emperor Heaven, Quinn and Black Tiger God’s smiles had completely frozen. The gods in the sky and the thousands of cultivators below were all stuck in place, faces locked in awkward smiles. They’d been like this for quite a while.
Just then, a tall figure stepped out from the altar’s glow—a middle-aged man who looked around in surprise, his gaze settling on Quinn.
"So it’s Cult Master Quinn. What impressive thing have you done this time? And where is this place?"
——Second update is here! Recommended: a new female-oriented historical romance, "Enchanting Foolish Consort," by Bi Luo Xin.